Pirated Photoshop 7?

[ke aaa]

Hi,
First off, I want to tell you that I did not send this through the anti-piracy support section because I am not sure this software is pirated yet. I'm wondering if there is any way to tell if it is indeed pirated.
Several weeks ago I purchased Adobe Photoshop 7.0 at [url]www.productivitydeals.com[/url] for $39.95. The website is down now for some reason. Anyway, I just now received it. The website I purchased it from claimed it was OEM. The CD, blank on both sides with no labels, came without any manuals etc as described. The fact that it does not have any labels, the price, and that the website I purchased from is down, makes me suspicious. Is there any way to tell if this CD is pirated? I didn't mean to pirate Adobe software in any way, or had any idea the CD might be pirated.
The company name of the seller of the CD is "LES Distributors".
Thanks for you help!
Keith

[ke aaa]

A slip of paper that came with it:

"Photoshop 7.0
Thank you for your recent order of Photoshop 7 OEM (NOT registerable). Here is the Serial Number needed for installation
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

If you have ANY questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Email: [email]support@nextdistribution.net[/email]
Live Chat: [url]www.ddnchat.com[/url]

If you are dissatisfied with the product for any reason, simply contact our customer support team for a full refund.

Thank you for your order, and enjoy!"

I did a Google search for the serial number I received. I came up with 500 results. Hmmmm...

keaaa

[Carl B. Johnson]

ke aaa



I think you have answered your own question...

if it smells like piracy, and looks like piracy.. aargh matey!

[Cheesefood]

This should become a sticky on Adobe's front page: beware of the NextDistribution team.

Yes, you bought a pirated copy. Same thing happened to my mom. If it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true.

[Cheesefood]

If you can still edit it, take the link off your post.

[dave milbut]

Arrgh. You should report it to [email]piracy@adobe.com[/email]

At least you were honest enough to be up front about it. Good going!

[Carl B. Johnson]

You should also be able to cancel payment on that charge if you are prompt.

[dave milbut]

good point!

[pope]

"I did not send this through the anti-piracy support section because I am not sure this software is pirated yet."

You're kidding...right?

[Carl B. Johnson]

> "I did not send this through the anti-piracy support section because I am not sure this software is pirated yet."

>
> You're kidding...right

Um, yeah, companies always send their product out on unmarked, blank
discs with no documentation, through fly-by-night distributors.

[Cheesefood]

"Hey, let's sell this product to users who really won't grasp the concept of the program. And let's sell it to them 15 times cheaper than we'll sell it to our professional users. That way we'll lose money by not moving units of Elements. But at the same time, we'll also lose our good name in the industry because we'll give Joe Nobody a much better price. Oh, and get this. To prove how legit we are, let's sell it via spammers."

[Jeff Schewe]

Registrant:
ProductivityDeals
21150 NE 203rd Street
Miami, FL 33169
US
Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: PRODUCTIVITYDEALS.COM
Created on: 01-JUN-03
Expires on: 01-JUN-04
Last Updated on: 26-JUN-03
Administrative, Technical Contact:
Deals, Productivity [email]productivitydeals@hotmail.com[/email]
ProductivityDeals
21150 NE 203rd Street
Miami, FL 33169
US
305-788-1857
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM
NS2.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM

I guess their DNS says it all. . .badwhoisshutdown.com says it all

[Bill Lamp]

I may be reading things into the posts that jump back when someone asks if what was too good to be true is just that.

A person got took. They were honest and came here, a darn good source of information, to confirm their suspicions. Yes, some clueless people DO come here to find out how to register software they KNOW is illegal. But a lot don't know that. With all the "buy software through download", order via the web, places that sell LEGAL used software (removed from the machine of the prior LEGAL user.. Just too many ways to get taken.

Lets remain honest about pirateware, but not assume the poster is automatically stupid, just un-informed. I know a darn good Surgeon who can just manage e-mail but does do some digital photography with software to just print what the camera takes.

And to those who advised this person about calling the credit card company about stopping that payment and changing the card. YOU gave Ke the advice he needed. Thank you.

btw & OT: beware of ANY msg on usenet that is 543 lines. No I didn't get "bit" thanks to a reasonable number of different checks on everything that comes in.

Bill

[dave milbut]

excellent ke. glad to help. if you're looking for a photoshop-like application, Adobe Photoshop Elements <http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/main.html> has much of the power of photoshop without all the high end print professional stuff. And it's only 99 bux or better (if you go through a good site like amazon.com or buy.com)

- note, i just checked amazon, they have PS Elements 2.0 w/free shipping, $89 + 30 dollar rebate for a total of $59.99US. If you're not in the US check a local version of amazon.

Another thing about Elements is that if later on you decide to really get photoshop, there's a decent upgrade price for registered elements users (more than current full ps users, but considerably cheaper than buying a full version of PS!)

good luck,
dave

[Cheesefood]

He got took, my mom got took, and plenty of people are posting about it.

They're also selling Microsoft products, as well as other Adobe products, and who knows what else?

Let's just hope that there's a nice investigation in the works. I'm willing to be that they don't even own legal copies of the warez they're selling.

[ke aaa]

Yeah. I bet they don't have legal copies. Again, I reported them, and I think I'll report the FL address too. I've seen them selling Office XP professional (Retails for like $400) for $40 or $50. I believe they were selling Windows XP also.

I wonder if their website was taken down by them, on purpose, or . . . ?

ke aaa

[Cheesefood]

I think I'd be more afraid of Microsoft than Adobe.

[Bill Davis Jr]

Thank you guys. You have answered my question.

A few months ago I decdied I wanted to purchase a copy of Photoshop 7.
Then one day I logged onto my AOL account and started to read my email
when I saw this ad for Photoshop for $40.00. I said to myself this can
not be right. So I deleted the email and purchased from Amazon.com
istead. It might be alot more but at least I know it is a legit copy.

Btw, when I ordered from Amazon.com it was selling at the same price
as Adobe.com. Then the next day Amazon.com lowered the price on
Photoshop 7. So I emailed them about this and they gave the full
credit of the price difference.

Bill

[Mark Hiers]

I think I'd be more afraid of Microsoft than Adobe.






Hey! our thugs are just a surly as Microsoft's ;-)

[dave milbut]

Hey! our thugs are just a surly as Microsoft's ;-)




....but they wear Pantone 282 U pinstriped suits instead of Navy pinstripes.